Sunday, November 02, 2014

Quick notes: Cut at the pump, Tirumala evangelist...

  • Diesel, petrol prices cut: It’s bad economics; govt should have raised taxes instead. Consider where we would have been if Rs 8,33,482 crore had been available to the finance minister for investment in infrastructure or genuine job creation.


  • Tirumala Evangelist: Evangelist Sudhir arrested, admits to offence. Sudhir’s blasphemous video on Lord Venkateswara had gone viral.


  • Sex trade: Even as the NCW is likely to pitch for legalization of prostitution before a Supreme Court- appointed panel, women's rights activists say they are not in favor of legal status for sex trade.


  • When we eat a dead animal's cells..


  • The Art of Stillness: "At some point, all the horizontal trips in the world stop compensating for the need to go deep, into somewhere challenging and unexpected; movement makes most sense when grounded in stillness. In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still." --Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness.

  • Quick Notes

2 comments:

san said...

On price cut vs tax hike, I disagree - economic growth can help infrastructure get built faster too. In this case, deregulation of price controls is a more important action, and a stronger sign to the markets of reform-mindedness. Already, Reliance and others are restarting their petrol distribution businesses, bringing more players into the market whose competition can improve efficiencies and extend supply chains.

For infrastructure, India needs to look at public-private partnership for accelerated infrastructure development.

Pagan said...

At the least, the price advantage of Diesel over Petrol needs to be rectified - by taxing both equally. Indian Diesel has 50 times more particulate matter than in Europe and is leading to a lot of diseases including cancer -- even people who don't drive have to pay this penalty.

I feel we should tax hydrocarbons more and use that on infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians -- the most neglected segment in our transport model.